County health officials celebrating 75 years

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, December 4, 2005

The name has changed several times and many leaders and employees have come and gone in the last 75 years.

But one thing has remained constant for the Midland County Department of Public Health: its goal of keeping Midland healthy.

"Overall, we are healthier than the state average, pretty much across the board," said department director-health officer Michael Krecek. "We are a healthy community, but there is room for improvement."

The once Midland City-County Health Department/Midland County Health Department is celebrating the milestone Wednesday at the Herbert H. Doan Midland County History Center.

Krecek describes the agencys job as protecting public health through health promotion and disease and environment protection.

What it takes to do that job is always in flux. When the agency started, the leading causes of death were pneumonia, premature birth and heart disease. Now, cancer tops that list along with heart disease, a constant killer over the last 75 years.

Carol McPherson, community health nurse, combed through old records and newspaper clippings preparing display boards with a timeline of the agency for the event.

The department started in 1930 with two nurses and physician in charge Dr. D.E. Camp, the first of 16 directors. Records show that early on, problems such as a mild scarlet fever epidemic, whooping cough and sanitation-related issues were prevalent in the county.

A sanitary engineer joined the department in 1935, which led to new requirements for places that handled food. X-rays came to the department in 1945, around the same time contagious diseases such as chickenpox and diphtheria spiked.

In 1950 a booth at the Midland County Fair X-rayed 3,121 people, leading to 35 following up on the scan with the department. More vaccines became available to the department, such as the Salk polio vaccine.

In 1993, Midland County initiated an electronic registry for vaccinations, which became a model for the statewide database. The same year, the Midland County Services Building opened, with health services taking most of the second floor, where offices are today.

Recently, the health departments has worked on plans for handling pandemic diseases, acts of bioterrorism or other chemical events, Krecek said.

"If something like the bird flu would occur, we believe wed be able to swiftly deal with it and hopefully minimize the impact, thus protecting the health of our citizens," he said.

But its not all dealing with disease as it happens for the agency. Prevention and education efforts, such as encouraging healthy lifestyles, make a good portion of the countys efforts, Krecek said.

McPherson, with the department since 1993, thinks the departments relationship with the community is her organizations strength.

"I think it has helped enhance the health of our community because we have good networking," she said.